Katrina exhibit opens in New Orleans

by Sean McLachlan on

It was the most catastrophic event in New Orleans history. Hurricane Katrina destroyed large swathes of the city and left hundreds of thousands homeless. Now the Louisiana State Museum has opened an exhibit chronicling the natural disasters that have visited New Orleans, culminating in the most recent and worst.

Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond, a 6,700 square-foot multimedia exhibition, opened this week. The show traces the history of the city’s relationship to the elements and explores how such disasters can be averted in the future. Interactive displays show how hurricanes form, why they are so prevalent in the Gulf, and how Katrina broke the levees and caused such widespread destruction.

Many individual stories are told, like that of Ken Ballau, who used his boat to rescue four hundred stranded civilians. His boat is part of the display. Claudio Hemb’s jeans are exhibited too. Thinking he was going to die, Hemb wrote his and his wife’s names, her phone number in Houston, his social security number and blood type on his pants so his body could be identified and his wife informed.

The museum hopes the exhibit will act as a catharsis for New Orleans residents, as well as educational for the thousands of out-of-towners who visit the museum every year.

[Image courtesy U.S. Coast Guard]

Could a hurricane still disrupt your vacation?

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you have a vacation planned to the Gulf of Mexico coast between now and the end of November, the odds that it will get screwed up by a hurricane are declining rapidly. Hurricane season ends on November 30, and it looks like it’s going to be remembered as a pretty mild one, with only 16 named storms, nine hurricanes and five hitting Category 3 or higher. There haven’t been any major storms to make landfall.

So, it looks like 2010 will resemble 1951, according to an Insurance Information Institute blog post – the only year to have at least five major hurricanes but none actually making landfall in the United States.

There’s still a chance that a big one could disrupt your travel plans: think Hurricane Wilma in 2005, for example, which followed Hurricane Katrina and was the fourth costliest hurricane in terms of insured losses ($11.3 billion, adjusted for inflation).

[photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video via Flickr]

Airlines provide change fee relief because of Hurricane Earl

by Tom Johansmeyer on

As Hurricane Earl works its way up the east coast, airlines are letting passengers take one item off their lists of concerns. Delta has announced that passengers affected by the storm can make one-time changes to their plans without incurring any fees. This applies to flights scheduled for today and tomorrow and covers more than 20 airports in the eastern United States, including the New York area, Washington, Boston and Baltimore.

AirTran Airways has gotten in on this concept, as well, with passengers hitting a number of airports, including San Juan, Puerto Rico, being able to change their plans without paying extra. It only works for flights taking off by Saturday.

[Photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video via Flickr]

Hurricane season is for bargain-hunters

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Hurricane season will not keep travelers from their destinations! A recent survey by TripAdvisor®, which mined the opinions of more than 1,000 U.S. travelers, reports that 43 percent plan to hit a hurricane-prone destination this summer or fall – peak hurricane season. This is up from 36 percent last year. Sixty-five percent of the survey’s respondents are doing this to take advantage of a “significant savings.”

Blame the financial crisis.

An already dismal market for travel companies is likely to be exacerbated by storm risk in areas traditionally visited by hurricanes. To 25 percent of the survey respondents, this is why they’re going. Another 25 percent they could be convinced to enter hurricane neighborhood for discounts of greater than 50 percent on travel and accommodations.

Many of these survey-takers speak from experience. Thirty-two percent of them have been through hurricanes while on vacation … and it would take a lot to get them to leave. Eleven percent would bail when a Category 1 storm hits, and another 18 percent would move for a Category 2. The tipping point is Category 3, which would prompt 26 percent to leave, with a Category 4 storm shedding another 10 percent. Three percent of respondents would leave for a Category 5 storm, and only 2 percent would stick around regardless of hurricane potency. A whopping 29 percent answered, “I don’t know.”

Thirty percent of respondents simply avoid certain destinations because of hurricane risk, with the Caribbean the destination most avoided during storm season. Fifty-five percent would only cancel their plans if a storm was imminent, while 19 percent would cancel on possibility alone. Some hedge their bets – 30 percent said they are likely to buy trip insurance to protect their hard-earned cash from hurricane-related cancelations.

“Despite some reluctance to visit hurricane-susceptible destinations during storm season, a large number of travelers are willing to roll the dice if the price is right,” said Michele Perry, vice president of global communications for TripAdvisor.

A Hurricane Hits Canada

by Josh Lew on

When television reporters try for their moment of glory by standing outside in the midst of a hurricane, there is usually a palm tree being whipped by the wind in the background. Hurricanes are known mainly as a tropical phenomenon. But not always. Hurricane Kyle battered Nova Scotia yesterday. Meanwhile, the neighboring US state of Maine issued the first hurricane warning in 17 years. Winds of 96 miles per hour were reported when the category one storm made landfall.

While rare, hurricanes in Canada are not unheard of. Hurricane Juan caused two fatalities when it hit Canada’s Atlantic coast 5 years ago. No deaths have been reported during Kyle. However, trees and power lines were downed.

The worst-ever storm to hit Canada was Hurricane Hazel, which killed 85 people in 1954 and left large parts of Toronto flooded. Kyle is the 6th hurricane and 11th tropical storm of the season. Storms this year have been particularly bad for Caribbean nations.